Reviews with content warning for Cannibalism - The Ministry of Time

Reviews tagging 'Cannibalism'

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

210 reviews

fluffballpanda's review against another edition

2.75

adventurous reflective sad tense medium-paced

Just kinda weird. I wanted to love it wish it was either mystery or romance

Content Warnings

kelsea's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous challenging medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Content Warnings

sxndaze's review against another edition

2.5

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

"And in the heat of your obsession," he said, "did it occur to you to remember that I am a person too?"

i have a strange relationship with this book, if you can even call it a relationship. i like the premise and the writing. it’s fascinating and the treatment for the most part is quite lovely. the novelty of seeing characters who are plucked out of time and living in the present world and doing mundane things is my cup of tea. but the connection to the high stakes plot feels disjointed and at times, out of place.

the romance makes sense, but its execution is clunky. the turn it takes is something i like, but again, im not sure about it in the grand scheme of it all. the individual parts of this book are good, but put together and im not sure they mesh very well. at some point, i felt like i was slogging through it even though by all accounts, i should have been enjoying it. i felt a sense of distaste at times too, and im left feeling confused and overall dissatisfied.

Content Warnings

messidi1's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Content Warnings

lemonwrlds's review against another edition

2.5

adventurous reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Content Warnings

baileebee123's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Another book club read and I had a great time!

I loved so much about this book. I started listening out listening to the audiobook but quickly realized that I needed to grab my physical copy and start tabbing (something I haven't done since college, when I needed to) because there were so many things that I wanted to keep track of. For example, here's an exchange between the main character and Commander Gore:

[He] said: "I think it would improve my quality of life if we got a dog."

[...]

I murmured, "It's quite a small house for a dog."

"They are only so big," he said, indicating with his hands the dimensions of a very large dog."

It's funny, the writing is exactly the type of flowery that I like, it has some very interesting commentary on racism, colonialism, growing up and being of mixed ethnicity, survivor's guilt, the nature of history, and so much more. The characters are incredible. I loved Graham, Arthur, and Maggie, and was so endeared about how much Kaliane Bradley seemed to pull from her own life for her main character. And that's before even mentioning anything that happens in the book!

Relatively early on, about 20% by my notes, we got our first hint that something wasn't right (besides the overall ethics of treating the expats like lab rats) and I can honestly say that I could not have predicated how the events of this book played out. The foreshadowing was there but the ending and the character roles went in such different directions I personally did not see that coming. It was AWESOME and I am in awe of the premise it's such a departure from anything I've read at least in recent memory (maybe I could have seen that if I read more sci-fi, lol).

I think, in terms of the story, this could have been five stars if the main character had been Arthur or Maggie and our romance side plot had been queer. I don't think that would have been genuine to the author and therefore not actually a thing that I want, but I do think that the content would have differed slightly and I'll talk about that in the next paragraph.

Due to the fact that the character of Graham Gore is a fictionalized version of the actual officer on the Franklin Expedition, I added a content warning for one of the tragedies that took place in the actual historical event:

cannibalism. This may be a personal thing, but when I was in middle school I did a research project on the Donner Party and that honestly scarred me for life. Since then, I've been in some form a vegetarian and that has been the proper descriptor of my diet for going on five years. I don't think I will ever read Tender is the Flesh or watch the Jeffrey Dahmer Netflix series.

The mention is this book is not, in my opinion, overt, however it was enough that I think it deserves the warning and my rating slightly lower because of it.

This is Kaliane Bradley's debut novel and I would love to read more of her work. This one was hilarious, the plot was so unique, and her writing was of a style that I really enjoyed.

Content Warnings

schubertan's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

withlivjones's review against another edition

4.75

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

I’m jealous of anyone who hasn’t read this book because that means they get to read it for the first time. The way the author writes is so beautiful, and this book contains multitudes - about love and grief and generational trauma and being mixed race and wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff. I got a little too attached to the characters for my own good - I thought Graham, Maggie, and Arthur were such a lovely found family. There were some twists that were predictable but others I definitely didn’t see coming, and honestly the pacing was all over the place - nothing much happened for about 75% of the book but then suddenly everything happened in the last 25% and it was a lot to process. But my overall reading experience was very positive and I’m sure this book will be an early favourite of this year.

Content Warnings